With a week left on my holiday at work i decided to use it or lose it and head up to north wales.
Me and Tommy headed up on the Sunday morning in the blue monster off Tommy's work truck and got there with time to fit a bit of evening bouldering in at the famous Cromlech boulders. Ive had a small taste of these fine climbs before but nothing that testing. I warmed up on some of the easy classics of the bloc and headed round the back to try a v8 that Tommy had found in the book, I gave it a few goes before getting shutdown as well as wanting to save a bit of energy for Jerry's roof. I had seen this problem for years and have always wanted to try it but only had time for a few goes. Sadly no tick went on this problem on the day but one to come back for.
the next day the weather wasn't that great so we headed to where every one heads to on a rainy day parislas cave, I had seen this place on DVD's and on friends vids of the amazing lines that come out of this cave. We arrived at the crag and I was amazed about the small island that its situated on the other crags looked sweet and I was psyched to get my rope out. We went in the cave to boulder to start with and got completely shut down on the steepness and the power required for the harder lines. My friend Drew told me that I should try a 8a down at LPT just down the cliff from the cave so I asked Tommy if he would belay me and we headed down after a going bolt to bolt the tide was coming in and it was getting late so didn't have time to give it a bash but this is a place I will be back too for sure.
I think i did some climbing this week......
The next day we headed up to slate with not much of a idea on what it was going to be like. The smooth slaby nature of the rock is not my style at all but it didn't matter i was psyched and ready to climb. We headed to bus stop quarry to start with and did most of the classics on the crag and then headed over to the Australia crag. I wanted to try a E1 called looning the tube, I had seen photos of this crazy line with a 6 inch pipe leading you off onto the climb and needed to do it.
I headed back after an amazing day for a warm shower and some nice food form the local pub to find that the weather was going to get bad again for the next day. I had one thought in the back of my mind SNAKES AND LADDERS!!!!!. no this isn't a board game, this is a 2hour long route that runs through most of the crags on the slate. Up and down chains and ladders and through caves.
We woke up to 40mph gusts and a big down fall of rain, PRIME. we went for it and what a day it was. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good time. sadly my phone got completely soaked and is still not even turning on but it was worth it for sure.
The last day we headed back up to the slate as it was the only place dry for a 5 pitch 6b , Grand Day Out. By far some of the best bolted climbing Ive done in the UK the climbing on the top pitches are absolute brilliant.
Photo: Tommy Harris
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